Abstract This paper identifies and discusses the various aspects of Erving Goffman's model of face-to-face communication, including impression management, discrediting information and group interaction or 'performance team'. The paper investigates these concepts and others as well as the concepts guiding the paper to the ultimate question of 'where or what is the real self?' The paper, considering Goffman's thoughts, attempts to answer this question.
From the Paper "For centuries philosophers have attempted to explain human face-to-face interaction. It is the human's desire for the fundamental answers of existence that explain this fact. Erving Goffman, a 20th Century sociologist, essentially found face-to-face communication to be a series of dramatic performances, not dissimilar to the performance of an actor or actress in a production. Thus, Goffman's 'dramaturgical' account of face-to-face communication was born. There are several aspects to Goffman's model of communication. Firstly, impression management is an important facet to investigate. Secondly, the relationship between revealing discrediting information and tactful blindness shown by the recipient is an interesting concept. "
Tags: impression, management, discrediting, information, tactful, blindness, performance, team
Abstract This paper explains that people who report the crime of rape to the authorities are attacked very often because of rape myths. The author points out that rape myths permeate society with their age old rhetoric and transform large scale false beliefs. The paper stresses that rape myths give perpetrators the ability to justify their actions and, at the same time, they discredit the real victims who wish to seek justice. The author underscores that there are numerous rape myths, but the most common ones, which the author examines in detail, are 'you can't rape the willing', 'men are at danger of being falsely accused of rape', 'some categories of forced sex are not really rape' and, the most famous one of all, 'no can mean yes'.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Impossible to Rape an Unwilling Woman
Women Secretly Want to be Raped
Women Cry Rape
Conclusion
From the Paper "Metaphorically speaking, the penis was deemed a weapon and the vagina as a submissive holder for it. The saying implicates that by merely 'vibrating', this holder could fend off the attack. In the words of Michael Ryan, one of the most prominent jurists in the 1830s, it was 'almost impossible' to rape a resisting woman. Children who had claimed that they were raped had to do so very carefully, many at the time considered the rape of a child impossible! John Leeson, who was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, was one of the professionals who had claimed this."
Abstract The author evaluates the use of anti-depressants, and analyzes the patient's experience using Goffman's classic social psychology theory of 'Stigma'. Included are discussions of the concepts of moral career, information management versus interaction management, and discreditable versus discrediting stigmas.
From the Paper "Despite the recent popularity of drugs such as Prozac and Paxil, depression and the use of antidepressants are stigmatized in American society. In this paper I will show how a college student, whom I will call Amanda, has been stigmatized for this reason. I will use concepts of personal identity and interaction from Erving Goffman's Stigma to elucidate the workings of stigma in this case."
Abstract This paper describes the circumstances of the scandal that arose around Patricia Dunn, chairman at Hewlett-Packard, when she had to investigate why secrets regarding corporate strategy began appearing in the press. The author explains that when evidence pointed to board member Jay Keyworth as the source of many of the leaks to the press, his friend and fellow board member Tom Perkins took offense at Dunn and launched a campaign to discredit her. The author concludes that it seems that the charges brought against Dunn are largely the result of Perkins's discrediting campaign against her.
From the Paper "Someone from the board had been leaking valuable company info to the press - not only about HP corporate strategy, but about whom the board was considering for CEO as well as the company's interest in buying another tech company. The majority of the board asked Dunn to investigate the source of the leak. The investigation went a bit too far, and Dunn was eventually indicted on charges of pretexting - that is, using false pretenses in order to obtain the personal information of board members and journalists connected with the leaks."
Tags: unethical trust journalist illegal, Wall Street Journal, e-mail
Abstract This paper takes an in depth look at the ways in which pharmaceutical companies unscrupulously put profit before people. Five of the main ways in which they do this that are discussed are; manipulation of research, undue influence over doctors prescribing practices, direct-to-consumer advertising, discrediting of their competitors pharmaceutical and natural alike, and investing only in profitable research. Each topic is discussed thoroughly with credible sources to back the data up.
From the Paper "The pharmaceutical industry wants people to believe that their main goal is to help people. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has even begun airing feel-good commercials featuring people whose lives have been saved by medications. In reality, they spend billions of dollars every year to ensure their true purpose, maximum profit. Their influence begins in the research lab, where the sponsor, usually a pharmaceutical company with a huge financial stake in the findings, has more to say over how the study is conducted and what information is released then the actual investigators, leading some of the foremost medical journals in the world to fight back with strict guidelines. After the pharmaceutical companies get their products approved, they engage in a campaign of bribery to persuade doctors to prescribe their name brand, expensive drugs over their competitor's products. Not wanting to leave it up to the doctors alone to endorse their products, the pharmaceutical industry has started advertising directly to an unwitting populace, on television and in popular magazines. Pharmaceutical companies use their political power and vast economic resources to discredit and undermine non-drug treatment options for various diseases, particularly by attacking the burgeoning field of holistic medicine. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical companies have a long history of not investing in research that would lead to drugs for diseases that effect the world's poor, because there is little profit to be made in developing nations. Through various immoral practices, the pharmaceutical companies put profit ahead of the interests, health and safety of consumers. "
Abstract The paper presents a history of the African American struggle starting in the 1850's with the case of Dred Scott. It continues by explaining the status of African Americans during and after the civil war. The paper documents how, in the 1940's and 1950's, African Americans began to challenge the injustices they faced, particularly with regard to education. The paper continues to the 1960's with the rise of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the Nation of Islam. The paper focuses on the aims and methods used by the BPP and how the FBI tried to discredit the BPP and other Black revolutionary organizations.
From the Paper "In 1954, the Supreme Court legitimately struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson in its Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that separate educational facilities were intrinsically unequal. Some areas readily embraced integration after Brown, while others submitted only after further prodding from the courts. School administrators rapidly realized that they faced many problems, such as increased violence and increased discrepancy in the abilities of students in the same classroom."
This paper explores the concept of combining socialism with ideas of Islam. It also gives several examples of the use of a socialistic model in the Islamic world. The writer discusses the governments of Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, Libya and Algeria.
Abstract This paper attempts to illuminate the origins of Islamic political thought and also to introduce similarities between Islamic and Western ideas. The writer argues that Islamic political thought (especially the socialist movement) is not a dangerous and violent opposition to Western democracy. The paper works to discredit some stereotypes not only about the Islamic world but also about the idea of Socialism in general.
From the Paper "There are many aspects of Western civilization that were not accepted by the Islamic world. First, the social principles and the life of the West were totally different from the Muslim culture. Practical and technical knowledge, full markets with material goods were "incapable of offering to men's minds a flicker of light, a ray of hope, a grain of faith, or of providing anxious persons the smallest path toward rest and tranquillity" (Al-Banna 119). After more than a hundred years of European rule, many Muslims got tired of Western materialistic culture and wanted some spiritual satisfaction that they had before the Western Intervention (Al Banna 118-119)."
Tags: Algeria, Somalia, politics, society, Muslim, thought
Abstract The paper is a description of what role ethics and morals play in the life of a defense attorney. While having to support his client, a defense attorney more often than not would have to prove the prosecution's witness to be fake. The paper deals with the techniques that are followed by an attorney to protect his client and it gives us an idea of the numerous strategies that he would have to adopt to prove his client in the right. Further, the paper is also a discussion upon facts as to whether an attorney can purposely cross question a witness, and mislead the court just to prove his client not guilty. Here the main purpose of the argument starts with the fact whether a defense attorney is ethically right when he decides to purposely cross-examine the prosecutor's witness just to mislead the court, when he knows that the witness is saying the truth, and does so only to discredit his answers.
From the Paper "From time immemorial lawyers have been condemned and thought of as conniving people. As early as the biblical times writers have been condemning lawyers. The great satirist, Jonathan Swift had in his book Gulliver's Travels in 1726 stated that there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose that white is black and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all rest of the people is slaves. It can be stated that the real reason to conduct "Cross Examination" is to find answers to questions of fact. This can be stated to be the stage in a trial where the other party questions witnesses. The main reason to conduct cross-examination could be to find out facts that would turn out to be favorable for the case, to challenge the statements given by the witness. A counsel usually conducts cross-examination but the accused person can also conduct his defense by himself."
Abstract Richard Cavell tackles one of the all-time greats of communication theory in his article on ?McLuhan and Spatial Communication.? The paper explains that Marshall McLuhan was one of the great prophets (some would say charlatans) of early communication theory. For a long time he was one of one of the only celebrities of the field and toured wildly to give his opinions on the subject. They were certainly opinions worth hearing, for he had some remarkably new and insightful things to say about media, communication, and the way in which technology affects human development. The paper shows, however, that within the scope of his own lifetime, he went from spokesman to outcast and academia widely turned against him. Before his death his saw the school he had founded shut down and his work widely discredited. Since the rise of the Internet, however, the development of other, new forms of entertainment and media, McLuhanism has enjoyed something of an academic comeback. It is with this background in mind that the paper approaches Cavell's work on McLuhan, for much of his essay deals with presenting an explanation for McLuhan's disenfranchisement from and eventual re-adoption by the academic community. According to Cavell's central thesis, McLuhan's anomalous position and his lasting durability within the field of communications theory both spring from his ?elaboration of a spatial model of communication... based on the notion of acoustic space... situated within the spatial bias of postmodernist thought.?
From the Paper "Cavell's failure to bring up the way in which McLuhan's theories on space have been substantiated through current technological advances is an important one. Cavell explains in great length the way that McLuhan's theories draw from the history of technological development to explain the development of various forms of consciousness and space. Yet in explaining McLuhan's continued relevance, he somehow fails to take the logical step and relate McLuhan's dynamic space to what is today commonly called ?cyberspace.? Many theorists of the digital revolution look to McLuhan as one of the greatest prophets and thinkers of the Internet Revolution, having discussed its many complications and impacts years before it even existed. Paul Levinson explains that it is the Internet, not TV, that best fulfills the role of the media in creating the acoustic space described by McLuhan."
Abstract .After a necessary analysis of his major ideas, this essay will concentrate on his understanding of recollected memory and how recollected memories are a screen to protect the deeply concealed id whose impulse or fantasy threatens psychic equilibrium. In this context, one sees how in this system it was easy for Freud to discredit many of the surfacing memories of abuse that women had who underwent therapy because they were trying to conceal deeply concealed fantasies.
Abstract This paper explains Galileo's profound contribution and decisive arguments to those who legitimately sought to discredit the Ptolemaic theory.
Abstract This paper is a review and critique of Ronald Nash's book "Is Jesus the Only Savior?" It explores Nash's idea of exclusivism while discrediting pluralism and inclusivism.
Abstract Argument essay explaining why students do not use the library, which tries to discredit the Internet and show the advantages of libraries. The writer argues that students are not taught about the library well enough; therefore, they are intimidated. They feel the Internet is just as good, even though sources are not as reliable. Uses personal experiences.
From the Paper "The sixth grade is usually a great time for kids. They are finally the big shots of the elementary school. There is no longer anyone older to tell them what to do or where to sit in the cafeteria. They march around the playground and everyone knows who is in charge. Sixth grade was no different for me, and I really enjoyed most of it. On the other hand, there was one very, very horrible memory from sixth grade, library class. Once a week my class would have to go to the library for an hour and listen to our librarian, Ms. Case, ramble on about what was seemingly nothing. We would do some activities, learned to use the card catalog, and completed some book reports. We did this for about eight weeks and nobody enjoyed it. Ms. Case did not know too much about her library, which was pretty tiny. That was truly the extent of my library education. Of course, I did write tons of papers in high school, but I never formally learned anything about the library besides what I learned in sixth grade. Not to mention, those antique card catalogs we used when I was in sixth grade were a thing of the past. I only learned to use what I could teach myself in the library. To this day, as a sophomore in college, I am sometimes easily lost when I walk into one of the complex university libraries. To be honest, it is pretty intimidating. The library is not supposed to be an intimidating place. It is the best resource a student has to do his or her research. Students do not utilize the library or its resources to anywhere near the full potential. Most students are not properly educated about the tools the library has. Also, many libraries do not have sufficient funding to improve and stay up to date with society. Lastly, the internet negatively impacts library use. All of these factors have contributed to the decline of library use by students."
Abstract This paper examines how, in contrast to feminist protagonists that preceded her in literature, the heroine of Margaret Drabble's "The Millstone" comes to embody an intellectual and physical form of feminine competence in society. It looks at how, ultimately, Rosamund's pregnancy does not prove a hindrance to her work and how she discredits female stereotypes related to pregnancy through her simultaneous embodiment of maternity and intellectual development. It also shows how her work gives her societal approval at the same time she is receiving physical and sexual satisfaction from her role as a mother and a sexual being.
From the Paper "However, after weathering graduation and assuming graduate study, Rosamund becomes pregnant. Now, as the result of what was casual action, resulting partly because she was treating her body "like a man" woman, how can Rosamund still achieve feminine competence in a society that denies this concept? How can Rosamund liberate one's self from such constructed notions of the female self, as they are attached to the female body, particularly if one possesses a body deemed to be female in this society and achieve a sense of social and personal competence? Also, what occurs when a body enters into a state of maternity? How can a mother be competent?"
Abstract This paper examines how, in contrast to feminist protagonists that preceded her in literature, the heroine of Margaret Drabble's "The Millstone" comes to embody an intellectual and physical form of feminine competence in society. It looks at how, ultimately, Rosamund's pregnancy does not prove a hindrance to her work and how she discredits female stereotypes related to pregnancy through her simultaneous embodiment of maternity and intellectual development. It shows how Drabble incarnates Rosamund as a completely emancipated woman, a paradigm of the new generation, and embodies her own ideal conception of the modern woman, a woman complete in mind and body.
From the Paper "Drabble perhaps deliberately begins with her protagonist in a world where illegitimate birth is a stigma, even to those who do not flout the conventions of normal female intellectual development, such as Rosamund. Rosamund's attitude towards her own physicality is similar to Sue Brideshead or the Early Modern idea of femininity as being an either or proposition for women?as a kind of modification of the "angel of the hearth" Victorian ideal, women were constructed in such an idea as being either of the flesh, or of aspiring in an asexual fashion to a male consciousness."
